


Cybertron

by Kit_SummerIsle



Series: War Brides [4]
Category: Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: Barbarian!AU, Cities, Flora - Freeform, Geography, Other, climate, fauna - Freeform, hydrology
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-22
Updated: 2015-05-22
Packaged: 2018-03-31 17:16:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,046
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3986311
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kit_SummerIsle/pseuds/Kit_SummerIsle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sorry, it's not a fic! This description of the planet was made for my Barbarian!AU fics (the War Brides series), to clear a few things with where the involved cities are and how the characters move. The climate, hydrology, fauna, etc. just came as I wrote the thing. :-)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cybertron

**Author's Note:**

> Since this is a made-up geology, climate, etc, if anything is faulty/inconsistent, please tell me in comments and I'll try to fix it.

**Climate:**

Cybertron is mostly (95%) land with only small, shallow seas, rivers and lakes (acidic) and a few oil lakes and rivers, but the latter mostly underground (no separate continents). The overall climate is dry and hot, meaning its mostly desert, dry continental, savannah and tundra/steppe. A few highlands which are cold beside dry and a few spots of semi-humid continental by the shallow seas are exceptions. Two small, cold (- 10-20°C) poles with highly acidic layer of ice-slush – to be avoided as it is extremely dangerous to any mech. Average temperatures around 50°C in most of the moderate belt but day/night temperatures vary greatly in desert climate (+/- 30°C). Equatorial region is not that much warmer than the rest of the planet but wetter – greenhouse effect of so much fumes in the atmosphere.

Atmosphere: thin but dense. As the acid-cycle runs the atmosphere is more and more dense, the greenhouse effect is growing. Lower atmosphere is dry and dusty, middle layer is fumes and acidic vapor, upper layer is acidic clouds. No ozone-layer. Rain is sudden and usually unexpected from the near constant cloud cover. Blue (blue-ish) skies almost only exist over the poles, where the acid-slush covered ground make it nearly impossible to go to on the ground. As Cybertron’s axis is almost completely perpendicular to its orbital plane, seasons are nonexistent. The Moons cause a slight tide in the shallow seas and this in turn causes more or less evaporation, leading to one somewhat drier and one a bit rainier season that is different for the two hemispheres. Storms are either dry dust-storms (all the more dangerous for the crystal shards the wind blows with the rust/dust mixture) or acidic rainstorms. Winds are extremely strong as not much breaks their run on the mostly flat surface. Rain is slightly more likely near the equatorial regions and around the Arctic Circle, leaving the temperate belt somewhat drier (this is changing, as Iaconians noted in the first fic, the greenhouse effect equalizes the planet’s climate).

**Landforms:**

The land is mostly flat or of moderate elevation, hills, valleys, plateaus and only a few taller mountain ranges, mountain peaks and monoliths. Volcanoes are nonexistent. Few deep, narrow canyons exist and the shorelines of the shallow seas are mild and mostly uniform. Extensive underground landforms exist, acids, oils and energon all work on the sub-levels, many mechanimals also live underground, creating extensive tunnel-systems, caves, treacherous grounds and quite a few sinkholes and broken ground. Since no inner fire pushes the tectonic plates upwards, the only movement is down, into the tunnels and caves. In Cybertron ground is not pushed upwards (volcanoes, tectonic movement nonexistent), instead it is falling downwards (sinkholes and cave-ins). Land composition is half inorganic rocks, dust and crystalline sediment, half metallic compounds, in pure form, or melted, ground, rusted and otherwise damaged forms. 

Special landforms: crystals. Though crystals are mainly the flora of Cybertron, the crystals can grow so big as to be considered landforms instead of plants. There is the Glittering Mountains, which is a mountain-range of selenite crystals grown so huge they actually form a nearly impenetrable, unclimbable mountain range on the Alps’ size. It’s also the driest part of the planet.

**Hydrology:**

Three main forms of fluid system exist: acidic water-solutions, mixed oils and energon.

Various acids make up the water cycle, they form rivers, lakes and shallow seas, water evaporates into the atmosphere, takes up the greenhouse gases from mech/mechanimal exhausts, form acids and falls back as acid rain. Rain is mostly quickly siphoned away by the tunnel system, leaving the surface extremely dry. Lakes and seas form over a special ground-layer that is watertight and prevents this thus keeping the acids on the surface. Usual acid rain is painful, damaging to paint but nonlethal, usual river is dangerous but still nonlethal in short term exposure, usual lake and sea is lethal (acids concentrate as water evaporates) to most mechs unless specifically acid-protected.

Oil-energon system: Oil is in 99% underground streams and small ponds. Overground deposits are short-lived as they react unfavorably to acid rains. Oils are moved by gravity so they flow downwards and only elevated by the opposite moving energon streams. Energon is originating in the core and rises to the surface by way of wells – natural and drilled. The upflowing energon encounters the oils and take them to the surface or deposits them into the below-ground tunnel system where the oil is either taken or let flown back underground. Energon is either taken from wells and consumed or used in various ways – or from unclaimed wells it is deposited into underground caves, where it crystallizes and later can be mined for consumption. 

**Cities:**

Cities are all formed around a good, trustworthy energon well which is in the middle of the city, well defended from attackers. Energon wells can crop up anywhere, so there are cities everywhere on Cybertron, in the desert, within hills, on mountain peaks, even one on an island in the Rust Sea (which is an acid sea, but got its name from turning metals to rust). Less permanent and much smaller energon wells bubble up suddenly, flow from a few orns to a vorn and then dry up – they are usually found by the nomads who then stay near the well until it lasts and then move on. 

Still, for all the randomness of the distribution of the wells, the Southern hemisphere has more cities than the North, about twice as much. These cities are consequently closer to each other and have a little more ties than the northern cities which hardly knew any others than their immediate neighbor. Nearly all of Cybertron is habitable, only the poles are not, but the drier, moderate belt deserts have the least cities, because of the dust-storms. Nomadic tribes (and mechanimals) have no such constraints, since they are better adapted to the climate.

Iacon is in the Northern hemisphere, but not all that far from the Equator (25°N or so and arbitrarily named as Prime Meridian), at the edge of a desert in dry climate. Altihex is further North (around 35°N) and somewhat to the East (20°E if Iacon is 0°) and also on a dry spot. Vos is quite near to the South Pole/Arctic Circle (60°S), but on almost the same longitudinal line as Iacon. Tarn is also between the two, but slightly Easterly from it. Crystal City lies to the West of Iacon (60°W, nearly half of the planet away, so quite far) and not far from the Equator. Its placement means more rains, more crystals but slightly colder because of its elevation. 

Iacon – 25°N, 0°, ground level  
Altihex - 35°N, 20°E, ground level  
Protihex - 55°N, 30°W, tundra-desert  
Crystal City – 15°N, 60°W, flat plateau, cca. 400 mm over ground level  
Tarn – 30°S, 15°E, low hills  
Vos – 60°S, 10°W, within mountain peaks, cca. 1000 mm above ground level

_In regards to the fic it means (and many thanks to dragonofdispair for the insights and help that made it possible to envision the situation fully – the original fic was just a quick kinkmeme fill with geography understandably sketchy):_

The often-mentioned map describes a situation nearly a few hundred vorns old. Many nomad tribes still wander in the same routes as back then, but many changed their paths. The Decepticon tribe used to wander in the Southern hemisphere and both Tarn and Vos knows about them, so their path included both cities’ surroundings. But by the time of the first fic (War Bride) they decided to move to north and reached Iacon, going on towards NW. A few vorns after passing Iacon they got close to Crystal City and Deadlock/Wing encounter happened and they went on still NW. By the time of Dai Atlas starts to look for them, they’re nearly the opposite side of the planet as Iacon – but then they turn back around because they reach the Rust Sea.

Dai Atlas and Co. starts out from Crystal City, going E, SE, then S because the map marked the Decepticons in those parts. They pass numerous cities that used to know about them, but not lately. When they reach Vos they turn back, realizing that they have to go the opposite way, N-NW and again they have no idea where to look for the tribe. CC is the last place they knew the tribe to be somewhat close to, and it is W of Iacon. They fly to Iacon first (N) and then West, trying to recreate the tribe’s path. Flying with a purpose, they can cover a lot more ground than the tribe which wanders aimlessly and frequently stops for months if they find a well or good hunting grounds. If they go the right way, they can find the tribe and Wing under a month. 

All in all after the initial search in which the tribe and Dai Atlas go exactly the opposite ways, the will both turn around and go towards each other (unknowingly). If things go as they should, they can probably meet somewhere between Iacon and Crystal City. 

The Praxians, (oiginally a Southern tribe too) were chased far up north by the clan wars and are making their way back southwards aiming for Vos. They passed Protihex (NW of Iacon) and go S from there. 

**Flora:**

Cybertron’s flora has two main branches: crystalline-based and metal-based.  
Most of the various crystals form small, bush-like or stunted tree-sized growths and they grow very slowly. (No large trees or forests – the strong winds and storms leave only low, small, wide-based growths) A few are fast-growing and they have various shapes and composition. They grow from the solutions deposited by rains but some types can draw the energon from the ground through tubular, rootlike structures to grow. One of these is the kind that some cities grow as crops. Some can grow so big they’re considered landforms instead of flora. Crystals don’t use sunlight to grow but they need the acid rains to deposit solutions from which they grow – but too acidic rains can damage them too. Since many of them have no roots, they can move – winds push, slide or roll them and some even adapted to this and developed rounded surfaces. A ‘migrating’ group of crystals can even be dangerous to smaller mechanimals or even to mechs if they’re large and/or sharp enough to run them over and damage metallic armor.

Metallic growths evolved from the naturally occurring metallic crust of the planet. They all utilize the energon, oils and metals from underground, so they all have roots. They grow slow like crystals, but more slender. Most usual forms are metallic creepers on rock walls, bamboo-like taller plants and small, grasslike ground cover. They are rarer than the crystalline forms. One special type of metallic plant grows exclusively on decaying mechanimal frames (like fungi).  
Cybertronian mechs use both the crystals and metallic growths as herbs/seasoning in their energon diet. Various crystals have other uses too, medicinal, building, protection, etc. Nomads know and use crystals better, while city-dwellers use metallic plants more, to complement the energon-diet which lacks many necessary metals.

_Sorry romantic lovers, no flowers. (metallic plants propagate by roots, crystals not at all)_

**Fauna:**

All Cybertronian fauna is energon-based, like the mechs and all are land-based - no aquatic forms. Flying mechanimals are only insect-sized, the flying bird-class is missing (the atmosphere is highly unfavorable for such forms). Ground-based mechanimals have predators, grazers, scavengers and insect types. Grazers grow to the biggest (rotorbull, cyberboar, technodeer), predators are smaller, but faster (wire-cats, turbofoxes, cyberhounds, razorsnakes – _sorry, no dragons, except in the legends_ ), scavengers are small, burrowing (glitchmice, retro-rat), and insects usually live underground too (fire-ants, charge-snail). Most mechanimals are mammals (viviparous or egg-laying) with only a few types of reptiles and insects. Most mechanimals have either acid-repellant outer plates or live habitually underground. Grazers eat energon-infused crystals and plants, predators eat grazers and scavengers eat the remains. All mechanimals drink from energon wells if they find one, so competing with the nomads in this. Insects and rodents hunt each other, or live on decomposing mechanimal frames, and some on energon-bearing crystals.  
crystals.


End file.
